Various means have been used to characterize various individual network technologies as used in communications networks. Copper twisted pairs as used in the world's telephone networks can be described in terms of their capabilities as used with Digital Subscriber Line (“DSL”) equipment as 1.5 megabits per second or 3.0 megabits per second and so on. These capabilities are based upon the length of the copper line and the particular DSL technology that is used. Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (“HFC”) cable networks can be characterized in terms of their overall analog bandwidth as 750 MHz, etc. Optical fiber networks can be described in terms of their digital capability as 622 megabits per second or 2.5 gigabits per second, etc. Optical fiber cables have large capacities and are being installed in networks to augment or replace lower capacity networks. Other technologies such as fiber to the node and fiber to the curb can also be characterized in a similar manner.
In one example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,255 describes a method and apparatus for communications loop characterization based on a sampling of a reference loop to predict the overall capability of the rest of the copper loops in a cable binder group. This method predicts the capability of that particular cable, but it does not predict the overall capability of the geographically bound Carrier Serving Area (“CSA”) or other local network containing that cable. Various test sets can also characterize individual link segment speeds and capabilities, but these measurements take a considerable amount of time and effort to obtain and these measurements also fail to characterize the total capabilities of the communications networks in a particular geographic area.
Various network stimulation packages also produce overall network quality or capability measurements. Nevertheless, these packages are meant to be applied to specific communication networks, and are not geared towards computing the capability of a geographic area with potentially many different communications technologies.
Critical decisions regarding investments in various technologies are being made by network operators today based upon their assessment of the needs of their customers with respect to service speeds. For instance, a determination is made that a copper network segment must be replaced with optical fiber, but operators must figure our how this technology fits in with the overall network capability in this area or CSA, for example. They may further have a need to determine whether it be better to concentrate new optical fiber network segments together in one location or another location. Network operators today need a means to characterize their networks in terms of their overall capabilities or their capabilities of their network in particular cities, municipalities, wire centers, CSA's or other determinable geographically bound network areas quickly and effectively. This information would be used to more adequately and realistically describe these areas such that quicker, less costly, and better quality network investments can be made.
In addition, all of the telecommunications companies are interested in upgrading their capacity of their networks. In doing this, it is useful to be able to characterize and determine the existing capacity of their networks. For example, some telecommunications companies may want to compare their network capacity with competitors for presenting to their shareholders to show that they are competitive. Also, this information may be useful for decision makers at these companies to know where they stand relative to the industry. Further, some states may require a telecommunications companies to provide a certain capacity within their state, thus it would be useful to be able to quickly determine, characterize, and present these capacity determinations to the state to show compliance with their requirements. One difficulty in determining these overall capacity determinations for a particular geographic area, or sub-geographic area, is that capacity may exist in different magnitudes within a particular geographic area. Additionally, the density of service units, such as houses and buildings, may fluctuate greatly within a particular geographic area. Thus, the telecommunications company may provide a certain high capacity at certain parts of a geographic area servicing a certain number of units and a lower capacity in other parts of a geographic area servicing a different number of units. It may further provide capacity between these to yet another number of units. All of this makes quickly determining network capacity for a telecommunications company difficult. Add to this the fact that many times it is desirable to request a network capacity determination for certain smaller geographic areas within a larger geographic area and the determination may be equally difficult to achieve.